


Once Upon Another Time REWRITTEN UNDER "THE UNIVERSE WAS WIDE ENOUGH"

by Artemis_Sherwood



Series: Once Upon Another Time [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005), Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-14
Updated: 2016-03-18
Packaged: 2018-05-26 16:22:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6247060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artemis_Sherwood/pseuds/Artemis_Sherwood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Diana Scott is mysteriously thrown into the Doctor's universe, where her family doesn't exist, her friends are gone, and there's no way back home for her. But something's not right because the Doctor isn't married to River, there are four new Time Lords and Ladies in the Doctor's life that shouldn't exist, and the Master - well, he's willing to rip the universe apart to have control of the strange new powers that Diana now possesses. (All Doctors/OFC/All Masters + a bit of Clara Oswald and Jack Harkness.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Runaway Bride: Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> First things first. There are a few things you all should know.
> 
> Firstly, Diana is pansexual and while this is mainly a Doctor/OC story, there will be flirting (and almost definitely a bit more than flirting) with characters - male, female, and non of the above - that are not the Doctor. Secondly, this is a rewrite/start over of another fanfic of the same name. And while there will be similar ideas, themes, and the like, the story will be completely different. Third, and most important, I have written most of the canon characters as some form of not-straight. (i.e., Clara is bi, The Doctor/The Master/Time Lords in general are genderfluid, etc.) If this offends you, then I suggest you turn back now.
> 
> Otherwise, enjoy the story and try to review. Let me know what you like/don't like, how I can improve, and any ideas or suggestions you might have story wise.

Blues, golds, purples, and reds all swirled around me like a silent hurricane of colors. Peeking through the colorful mist were tiny pinpricks of light - stars - and planets of a million different sizes, all of them whizzing past me. Confused, I looked around and realized that I was floating. The mist had formed some kind of vortex around me and I hovered right in the middle of it, my arms and legs mere feet from brushing against the edges.

I opened my mouth, started to say something, only no sound came out. I hesitantly brushed my fingers against my lips, making sure that they were moving and not covered or blocked by anything. Then I lightly grasped my throat. I tried to speak again, but still nothing happened. Panicked, I screamed and felt my eyes well with tears when I still couldn't make a single sound.

I kicked my legs back and forth, clawed at my throat, and screamed soundlessly once more as the misty vortex began to glow gold. My stomach dropped and I hurtled through the air towards a gaping hole in the side of the vortex. The hole was black and empty, and just as I was propelled through it, I woke up.

I sat up in bed, breathing heavily with sweat pouring down my temples. My heart was pounding so heavily that I could hear its beat in my ears. I stared at nothing, trying to catch my breath as the strange nightmare looped over and over again in my mind's eye. I rubbed my eyes frantically in an attempt to block the image out.

My surroundings suddenly lurched to one side and a wave of nausea swept over me. I blinked a few times to focus my vision, looking around my room as the walls turned fuzzy and almost pixelated. I shook my head and reached for the glasses resting on my bedside table. But the glasses made no difference and my room remained out of focus and off-putting.

Then, as if nothing had happened, the room snapped back into focus. I experimentally pulled my glasses off and found that the room stayed the same. Placing them back on the bridge of my nose, I pushed my blanket off and stood up slowly. A yawn overwhelmed me and I instinctively stretched my arms above my head, then sighed contentedly when my spine popped.

My throat was dry and scratchy, so I quickly put on my TARDIS inspired slippers and headed for the door. Once I stepped through the doorway, however, I froze. The first thought I had was that I was still dreaming. _A dream inside a dream_ , I reasoned. Why else would my hallway look like the inside of the Doctor's TARDIS?

I stepped a little further into the hallway and circled in place, gazing up at the coral archways and orange tinted walls decorated with roundels. With a laugh, I took off running down the hall. It had been a long time since I last dreamt about the Doctor and I was going to take advantage of it. Each turn and open doorway I came across led to another hallway with more turns and open doorways. I went through doorways at random, taking whichever turn I wanted, not having any final destination in mind. But then I turned a corner and found myself stumbling right into the console room.

The ship hummed softly and the lights blinked as I walked onto the metal grating that surrounded the console. I could feel my lips stretch into a smile as I stared in awe at the console and the enormous, coral beams that towered above me. I reached out and gently brushed my hand against the console. Buttons flashed under my feather light touch and the ship hummed again as I circled the console. The scanner, which looked more like a TV screen than anything else, had several Gallifreyan symbols on it and the border was covered with yellow sticky notes. Lying on the console just beneath the scanner was a large wooden hammer with a metal head and beside the hammer was a tiny, silver pendant.

A loud, startling whirring noise sounded through the room and I withdrew from the console in surprise. I looked around the room in search of the source of the noise and noticed that the Doctor was nowhere to be seen. No Doctor and no companion. Directly across the room from me were the TARDIS doors, with a fire extinguisher lying on its side just next to the doors.

 _Maybe the Doctor's outside_ , I thought to myself.

The doors creaked as I pulled them open. A cold breeze blew past me as I stepped outside and I grumbled in discomfort, crossing my arms over my chest to block out the cold. The TARDIS was parked on what I guessed was a roof, if the view was anything to go by, and sitting on the edge of the roof was a redhead in a wedding gown and a man in a striped suit. The man jumped to his feet and stared at me in disbelief.

"You're here," he breathed. "H-How did you- I mean, how-… You're _here!_ "

The Doctor bounded across the roof and pulled me into his arms, holding me firmly against his chest. I froze, not sure of what to say or do. One of the Doctor's slender hands cupped the back of my head as his other arm slipped around my waist.

"Rassilon, I can't believe you're here. I thought-." He paused long enough to withdraw from me slightly and cup my face in his hands. "Never mind what I thought. You're okay. You're here."

I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, staring awkwardly at the Doctor as he gazed down at me. His fingers traced delicate patterns across my skin as tears began to form in his eyes. Then his lips suddenly pressed against mine and I was stuck between the TARDIS and the Doctor. I squealed in surprise, frozen in shock, as the Doctor pulled me even closer. His right hand was buried in my hair and his left hand remained against my cheek, tilting my head to the side as the Time Lord tried to deepen the kiss.

When I refused to open my mouth to his silent request, the Doctor withdrew and looked curiously at me. His cheeks were streaked with tears as his eyes eagerly searched my face for something. Dazed by the surprisingly good - if unwanted - kiss, I pulled back so I was leaning against the TARDIS.

"Diana?"

Looking past the Doctor, I saw the redheaded bride standing up with her hands on her hips. Donna Noble then stomped across the roof, her finger pointed directly at me and a frown on her face.

"What the _hell_ are you doing here?" she demanded. "I called you at least a dozen times and you didn't pick up your phone!"

I stared wide-eyed at the woman. "What?" I squeaked.

Donna narrowed her eyes at me. "I wanted you to be my bridesmaid, but _you. Wouldn't. Answer your phone!_ And now I found out you're with the man who kidnapped me!"

The Doctor sighed and shook his head. "I-I'm not- I didn't- I didn't kidnap you," he said.

"Granddad and I were worried sick about you, you know," Donna continued. "Nobody could contact you. We thought you were dead!"

"I-I'm not… dead," I stammered.

Donna rolled her eyes. "Obviously." Then, gesturing to the Doctor with her thumb, she looked expectantly at me. "So. Are you gonna tell me how you know him or what?"

The Doctor looked back at me as I stammered awkwardly in response to Donna's demands. I glanced nervously between the two. "Uh… Well," I started slowly.

"Diana and I are just acquaintances," the Doctor said for me.

Donna raised her eyebrows. "You snog all of your acquaintances like that, or just the pretty ones?" she asked.

"Well," the Doctor sighed, nervously scratching the back of his neck. "That was… That was, uh, just… I-It was my fault," he stammered. "Sorry."

Looking back at me, Donna pursed her lips and sighed. "Well, at least you're not dead." She glanced down at my outfit and her eyebrows furrowed together. "What are you doing in your jim jams? Actually, never mind. Just make sure you get a different outfit for the wedding."

"Oh!" the Doctor suddenly exclaimed. He reached over to his coat, which was placed over Donna's shoulders, and stuck a hand into one of the pockets. "I almost forgot. You need this."

He pulled a plain gold ring out and showed it to Donna and I. "Oh, do you have to rub it in?" Donna asked.

"Those creatures can trace you. This is a bio-damper. Should keep you hidden," the Time Lord explained. He took Donna's left hand and slid the ring onto her finger. "With this ring, I thee bio-damp."

"For better or for worse," Donna joked. "So, come on then. Robot Santas. What are they for?"

"Robot Santas?" I mumbled.

The Doctor spared me a glance. "Oh, your basic robo scavenger. The Father Christmas stuff is just a disguise. They're trying to blend in," he said. "I met them last Christmas."

"Why, what happened then?" Donna asked.

The Doctor shot Donna a confused expression. "Great big spaceship hovering over London? You… didn't notice?"

"I had a bit of a hangover," the redhead answered with a shrug.

The Doctor looked out at the skyline and then pointed at one of the taller buildings. "I spent Christmas Day just over there, the Powell Estate, with this family." His voice wavered slightly and I suddenly remembered that he had just lost Rose. "My friend, _our_ friend, she had this family. Well, they were-… Still, gone now."

"Your friend, who was she?"

"Question is, what do camouflaged robot mercenaries want with you?" the Doctor said to himself, ignoring Donna's question. "And how did you get inside the TARDIS?" He thought for a moment and then shook his head. "I don't know. What's your job?"

"I'm a secretary," she said.

Pulling his sonic out of his trouser pocket, the Doctor quickly scanned her. "It's weird. I mean, you're not special, you're not powerful, you're not connected, you're not clever, you're not _important_."

"Hey!" I exclaimed, making the Doctor glance at me.

Donna pursed her lips angrily. "This friend of yours. Just before she left, did she punch you in the face?" she snapped. "Stop bleeping me!"

The Doctor obliged and put his sonic away. "What kind of secretary?" he wondered.

"I'm at HC Clements. It's where I met Lance," Donna said with a smile. "I was temping. And Lance, he's the head of HR! He don't need to bother with me. But he was nice, he was funny. And it turns out he thought everyone else was really snotty too. So that's how it started, me and him. One cup of coffee. That was it."

"When was this?"

"Six months ago," Donna replied.

"Bit quick to get married."

"Well, he insisted." I stopped myself from laughing, knowing that was the complete opposite of the truth. "And he nagged, and he nagged me. And he just wore me down. And then finally, I just gave in."

The Doctor, however, didn't seem to care much about Donna's story. "What does HC Clements do?" he asked.

Donna shrugged. "Oh, security systems. You know, entry codes, ID cards, that sort of thing. If you ask me, it's a posh name for locksmiths."

"Keys," the Doctor mumbled.

"Anyway," Donna sighed, "enough of my CV. Come on, it's time to face the consequences. Oh, this is going to be so shaming. You can do the explaining, Martian boy."

"Yeah, I'm not from Mars," the Doctor insisted.

Donna leaned her shoulder against the TARDIS and sighed again, looking somewhat dramatically into the distance. "Oh, I had this great big reception all planned. Everyone's going to be heartbroken."

* * *

Except nobody was, in fact, actually heartbroken. Music was blasting through the building and all of Donna's guests were dancing under a large disco ball placed in the center of the room. Donna froze and gaped at her friends and family, her hands almost trembling. One by one, people began to realize that Donna was there and the music suddenly cut off.

"You had… the reception… without me?" Donna said.

A dark skinned man who had previously been dancing with a tall, thin blonde woman stepped out of the crowd. "Donna, what happened to you?" he asked.

Donna's mouth was still open as she stared in shock at each of her guests. "You had the reception _without me?_ " she repeated, angrier than the first time.

The Doctor stepped forward and waved at everyone. "Hello. I'm the Doctor, and this is my- er, Diana," he said as he gestured to me.

Donna suddenly whirled around to look at the Doctor and I. "They had the reception without me!" she exclaimed.

The Doctor nodded seriously. "Yes, I gathered."

"Well, it was all paid for," the blonde woman said in a snotty, arrogant voice. "Why not?"

"Thank you, Nerys," Donna snapped.

Another woman, who I recognized as Donna's mother, stepped forward. "Well, what were we supposed to do?" she asked. "I got your silly little message in the end. I'm on Earth? Very funny. What the hell happened? How did you do it? I mean, what's the trick, because I'd love to know."

The dark skinned man scowled at Donna. "Where were you the whole time?" he demanded.

Nearly everyone began talking then, each person asking a different question of Donna and snapping at her. Donna looked like she was about to cry and she actually did. She let out a sob and the dark skinned man quickly pulled her into his arms. As he turned with the redhead in his arms, still comforting her and apologizing, Donna winked at the Doctor and I as she continued the act.

A short while later, after Donna and her nearly-husband Lance had made up, they were dancing happily on the dance floor with the rest of the guests. The Doctor had stayed back by the bar and since I wasn't much of a public dancer, I decided to stand with him.

"I'm sorry about earlier," he said suddenly. "When I kissed you. That was inappropriate of me."

I smiled and shook my head. "It's fine. Don't worry about it."

The Doctor glanced down at my shirt and he almost smiled. "We probably should have let you change clothes first." I laughed and just shrugged my shoulders in response, making the Doctor furrow his brows. "You seem… quiet. Is everything alright?"

"Yeah."

"You sure?"

I nodded. "Yeah. It's just, this dream feels different than any other dream I've had," I said.

"Ah, right," the Time Lord hummed. He fell silent and stuffed his hands into his trouser pockets. A few seconds later, he inhaled sharply. "You don't… I don't know, want to dance, do you?"

I shook my head firmly. "No. I'm not much of a dancer," I told him.

"Right." Once again, the Time Lord fell silent and he stayed that way for a few minutes. Then, as the music changed to a new song, he turned to me and smiled. "I'll be right back. I need to take care of something."

I nodded and watched as he walked over to the other side of the bar where he began talking to a man. A few moments later, the man handed his phone over to the Doctor and the Time Lord made his way back to me. He leaned against the bar and pulled his sonic out of his pocket again, glancing around to make sure nobody was watching.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I still don't know how or why Donna ended up inside the TARDIS. I thought," he continued as he sonicked the phone and proceeded to look something up on the internet, "that maybe looking into her job might give some answers." As results began flashing across the screen of the cell phone, the Doctor's eyes flickered up to meet mine. "I don't suppose you know anything that could help?"

I exhaled softly as I tried to think of anything that might be useful. "Not really," I said. "Except, I do know that Lance isn't who he says he is."

The Doctor's eyes widened. "How do you mean?"

"He's been lying to Donna. He doesn't love her."

"So he's working with somebody? To get to Donna?" I nodded. "But that doesn't make any sense. What would he want with Donna if he doesn't love her?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "But it's something to do with this woman, she's an alien. I don't remember much. I mean, I haven't seen this episode in a while, so I don't have any answers for you."

The corner of the Doctor's lips twitched into a half smile. "It's alright. It's not your fault," he said before looking down at the phone. " _Oh._ "

" 'Oh'?" I repeated. Leaning in slightly, I saw what had caught the Doctor's attention. The screen read: _HC Clements, sole proprietor - Torchwood_. "Oh."

"Torchwood again," the Doctor mumbled. "What do they want with this company?"

"Maybe they know about the alien woman," I suggested.

The Doctor nodded. "Maybe," he agreed. Snapping the phone shut, he playfully tapped me on the nose. "Two tics." He returned the phone to the man he'd borrowed it from, then bounded over to me with a grin. "I was thinking. See, Torchwood helped start HC Clements up over twenty years ago. But Torchwood was destroyed in the Battle of Canary Warf, so they can't be in control of it now. That means that someone else must have taken over after them."

"Who?"

"I don't know. And I don't know how it connects to Donna."

The Doctor scratched his jaw and tuned to look at the crowd where Donna and Lance were still dancing. Something seemed to catch his eye then, because he exclaimed, "Ah!", and then hurried across the dance floor. He stopped halfway through the crowd to speak to a man who was filming the party with a large camera he had stabilized with a tripod. As they continued speaking, the Doctor caught my gaze and gestured for me to go over with a wave.

"Oh, I taped the whole thing," the camera man told the Doctor as he inserted a small tape into the camera. "They've all had a look. They said sell it to 'You've Been Framed'. I said, more like the news. Here we are."

The Doctor slipped his glasses on as the tiny, fold-out screen on the side of the camera lit up and began playing video of Donna walking down the aisle. Halfway down the aisle, her entire body began to glow gold before she screamed and suddenly disappeared into a ball of golden mist that shot off out of frame.

The Doctor shook his head. "Can't be," he whispered. "Play it again?"

The camera man obliged. "Clever, mind. Good trick, I'll give her that," he said, more to myself than the Doctor since I was the only one paying him any kind of attention. "I was clapping."

"But that looks like Huon Particles," the Doctor said.

The camera man pulled a confused expression. "What's that then?"

"That's impossible," the Doctor answered, pulling his glasses off. "That's ancient. Huon energy doesn't exist anymore, not for billions of years. So old that… it can't be hidden by a bio-damper!"

The Doctor suddenly bolted across the room, his long legs taking him to the doorway in a matter of seconds. I stared after him in surprise and finally sighed a few seconds later, not wanting to bother with running after him. Just a few seconds later, the Time Lord dashed through the doorway again and practically screamed Donna's name. He skidded to a halt beside her and Lance.

"Donna! Donna, they've found you," I heard him shout over the music.

"But you said I was safe," she said.

He shook his head. "The bio-damper doesn't work. We've got to get everyone out. Diana!"

I hurried over to the pair and looked expectantly at the Time Lord. "What?"

The Doctor grabbed my hand and started for the back of the room. "Donna, come on, out the back door!"

The three of us ran over to the back door he had mentioned and the Doctor opened it only for us to find a pair of menacing looking Santas holding a tuba and a trumpet. The Doctor pushed me behind him and then pulled the doors shut again. "Maybe not," he said before pulling me with him across the room. We stopped in front of a large window and the Doctor pushed the curtains back to show us three more menacing Santas outside.

"We're trapped," Donna gasped.

One of the Santas pulled something out of his pocket that looked like a remote of some kind. "Christmas trees," the Doctor breathed.

Donna looked vacantly at the Time Lord. "What about them?"

"They kill." The Doctor ran over to the two Christmas trees placed by the DJ's booth, waving his arms at the two children playing with the ornaments. "Get away from the tree!" he shouted.

Donna ran after him, shouting as well. "Don't touch the trees!" she ordered.

"Get away from the Christmas trees!" the Doctor repeated. "Everyone get away from them! Everyone stay away from the trees! Stay away from the trees!"

Donna's mother rolled her eyes. "Oh, for God's sakes, the man's an idiot. Why? What harm's a Christmas tree going to- Oh!"

I watched from the windows as the small, red ornaments on the tree suddenly began to hover in mid air. Several children laughed and pointed happily at the ornaments. The Doctor stood protectively in front of Donna, watching them closely and waiting for something to happen.

Moments later, the ornaments began whizzing around the room and exploding. Guests began screaming and running around in a panic, and children started crying. One man was hit in the back by an ornament and the explosion tossed him across the room and into the wedding cake. A table stacked high with presents toppled over and fell apart after an ornament exploded right behind it.

The Doctor appeared out of nowhere and tackled me to the ground just as the window behind me exploded. I landed hard on the wooden floor as the Doctor's full body weight fell on top of me. But before I could even recover, he scrambled off of me and pulled me to my feet. "Come on!" he shouted.

We ran across the room, dodging ornaments and stampeding guests, and then dove for cover behind the DJ's booth. An ornament flew over the top of the booth and crashed into the wall just above my head. I screamed and crossed my arms over my head as the Doctor pushed me down, his body blocking mine from sight. And then the explosions suddenly stopped.

The Doctor told me to stay where I was before slowly peeking his head over the booth. It was apparently safe because he then stood up and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. "Oi! Santa!" he shouted. "Word of advice. If you're attacking a man with a sonic screwdriver-" he grabbed a microphone, flipped it once, and then smirked as he spoke into it "-don't let him near the sound system."

The Doctor jammed his sonic into an opening in the soundboard and switched it on. Every speaker in the room began blaring the sonic's buzzing sound so loudly, that I had to cover my ears. Only a few moments later, the sound stopped and the Doctor knelt beside me and gently pried my hands away from my head.

"It's alright," he said softly. "It's safe now."

Once he helped me to my feet, I looked around the room in shock. Several of the menacing Santas had entered the building and their bodies were lined up at the foot of the bar, their masks gone to show a robotic face in a red hood.

"Are you alright?"

I looked away from the Santas and into the Doctor's eyes. "Y-Yeah," I stammered.

He gently stretched my arms out and looked over them. "You're bleeding," he said, pulling off his tie and quickly unknotting it.

I glanced down and saw a cut across my forearm, blood slowly trickling down the curve of my arm. I inhaled sharply at the sight of the wound, but the Doctor tied his tie over the cut and pressed down firmly. His hand cupped my chin and tilted my head back so I was looking at him instead.

"Listen to me, you're okay. It's just a little scratch. I want you to put pressure on it to stop the bleeding. Can you do that?" I nodded wordlessly. "Good. Once we're back on the TARDIS, I'll take care of it. Okay?"

My throat suddenly felt very dry. "Yeah," I croaked, trying desperately not to cry or panic.

"I have to look at those robots and make sure they're deactivated. So you sit down here and put pressure on that cut, alright?"

I nodded again and the Doctor gently kissed my forehead before hurrying over to the bar. I sat down so my back was against the DJ's booth and pressed down on the tie, watching the Doctor kneel down and investigate the robots. My arm was starting to sting, blood was still slowly trickling down my arm, and everything was starting to feel less and less like a dream. _Dreams don't hurt_ , I thought. _But this one really does._

The Doctor suddenly jumped to his feet, his sonic pointed at the ceiling. "There's still a signal!" he exclaimed. "Donna, get Diana!" he said before running off.

Donna turned and looked around until her eyes finally landed on me. She hurried over and knelt in front of me. "Are you alright?" she asked. I nodded silently, afraid that if I tried to speak I would cry instead. "Give me your hand. I'll help you up."

Once I stood, Donna placed an arm over my shoulders to steady me. I leaned against her, staring at the doorway the Doctor had disappeared through seconds earlier. Everything felt almost surreal, except for the stinging cut on my arm.

"Donna?" It was her mother, staring wide eyed at her daughter and I. "Who is he? Who is that man?"

Donna glanced at me, then to her mother, then to the doorway, then back at her mother. Then she lightly squeezed my shoulders and began to guide me across the room to the doorway the Doctor had bolted through earlier. Just outside the building was a rocky driveway and the Doctor was standing there, his sonic pointed at the sky as he inspected it.

"What's he doing?" Donna whispered to me.

I shook my head. "I have no idea," I answered.

The Doctor looked over his shoulder at us and gestured to his sonic excitedly. "I've traced the signal from the controller and it's up there!" he said. "It's in the sky."

"The sky?" Donna scoffed.

"There's someone behind this, directing the roboforms," the Doctor said seriously.

"Roboforms?" I repeated softly.

Donna, however, was focused on something else - and rightly so. "But why is it me? What have I done?" she asked worriedly.

"If we find the controller, we'll find that out." The Doctor looked at me then and his face grew taut with worry. "We've got to get to your office, Donna, and quickly, but first we have to take care of Diana."

"The ambulance is on its way, I think," Donna said.

Nodding, the Doctor moved to put his arm around my back. "Good. We'll wait out here. Diana, why don't you sit down in the shade with me?"

I let the Time Lord direct me over to a small, metal bench in the shade of a tree. Donna followed us and sat next to me so I was between her and the Doctor. She rested a hand on my knee and gazed worriedly at me, much like the Doctor was doing.

"How are you feeling?" the redhead asked.

I swallowed and looked down at the tie tightly tied around my arm. "Um, okay. I think."

The Doctor very gently turned my head towards him and looked straight into my eyes. "You don't have a concussion, which is very good. Just a minor scratch," he said, flashing me a comforting smile.

"What happened?" Donna asked.

"It must have been from one of the explosions," the Doctor said. "Or the window shattering."

Donna stared incredulously at the Doctor for a moment, then sighed in exasperation. "When aren't you getting into trouble, Di?"

"I never get into trouble!" I insisted.

Just then, the sound of sirens began to wail and echo in the driveway. At the entrance of the driveway, a trio of ambulances were driving through the open iron fence. The Doctor immediately jumped out of his seat and flagged down on of the ambulances. A paramedic jumped out of the passenger side of the ambulance as it slowed to a halt and the Doctor brought her over to the bench.

The paramedic was a lovely Indian woman with dark brown eyes and a beautiful smile. She introduced herself and sat down beside me. Samreen, as she said her name was, began asking myself and the Doctor questions about my injury. While she questioned us, she began very gently cleaning the wound. A few minutes later, my cut was cleaned and properly bandaged, and Samreen began checking to make sure there were no other injuries.

"Look, I'm very sorry to interrupt, but-"

"Sir, please stand back," Samreen said sternly.

"But-"

"Sir, I need you to please stand back or I will be forced to remove you."

"But she's my- She's my friend," the Doctor stammered awkwardly.

Samreen stared at the Doctor, unfazed and unmoved. "And if you will step away, then I can properly take care of her."

The Doctor whipped out his psychic paper and held it in front of the woman. "I can take her to the hospital," he said. "Is that alright?"

Samreen hesitated, glancing at the other paramedics that were already escorting guests to the ambulances. She looked back at the Doctor and finally nodded. "Very well, Doctor." Gathering up her equipment, Samreen smiled kindly at me and stood. "I just need to grab, er, something from the ambulance. I'll be right back."  
As the paramedic started off towards the ambulances, the Doctor lightly grasped my wrist and gestured for me to stand. "I convinced her to let us leave, so we need to go now," he said.

"What was on that paper?" Donna asked. "What did it say?"

"I'll explain later," the Doctor said dismissively. "The TARDIS still needs to recover and even if she wasn't, I don't want Diana walking that distance. Do you have a car?"

Donna placed her hands on her hips. "No, I just fly to work everyday. Of course I do, dumbo!"

"Where is it? We need it!"

"Lance has the keys."

"Forget Lance," the Doctor said.

"Oi! Lance happens to be my husband!" Donna replied. "… Almost. You can't just-"

"Actually I can because we don't need keys," the Time Lord replied as he pulled out his sonic. "Not when I have this."

* * *

The Doctor practically sprinted into the HC Clements building, with Donna right behind him and me power walking behind the two of them. The Doctor was eager to find out what the company was up to and how Donna connected to it, but all I wanted was for the dream to be over.

 _Dream, hallucination? I don't even know anymore_ , I thought. _Everything feels so real, but I just want it to stop. I don't want to get attacked by flying ornaments again._

Just past the entrance hall was a large group of desks partially sectioned off from the public area. The Doctor ran to one of the desks and wiggled the mouse connected to the large computer beside it. When the computer didn't turn on, he moved to the next desk and tried the same thing.

"Doctor?" Donna called as she trailed after him. "What are you doing?"

"To you lot this might just be a locksmiths, but HC Clements was brought up twenty three years ago by the Torchwood Institute," he said, repeating the same information he had told me previously.

"Who are they?"

The Doctor looked up from the computer in confusion. "They were behind the battle of Canary Wharf." When Donna's only reaction was a blank stare, the Doctor narrowed his eyes. "Cyberman invasion. Skies over London full of Daleks?"

Donna clicked her tongue. "Oh, I was in Spain."

"They had Cybermen in Spain," the Doctor said slowly.

With an almost patronizing smile, Donna just said, "Scuba diving."

The Doctor moved onto the next desk. "That big picture, Donna. You keep on missing it. Torchwood was destroyed, but HC Clements stayed in business. I think someone else came in and took over the operation.

"But what do they want with me?" Donna asked.

"Somehow you've been dosed with Huon energy. And that's a problem, because Huon energy hasn't existed since the Dark Times." The shock and fear was plain to see on Donna's face as she stared at the Doctor. "The only place you'd find a Huon particle now is a remnant in the heart of the TARDIS. See? That's what happened." The Doctor reached for a mug on the desk beside him. "Say that's the TARDIS." Then he picked up a blue wooden pencil. "And that's you. The particles inside you activated," he explained as he wiggled the pencil. "The two sets of particles magnetized and whap-" he dropped the pencil into the mug with a smile "you were pulled inside the TARDIS."

Donna frowned. "I'm a pencil inside a mug?"

"Yes, you are," the Doctor laughed, making me laugh as well. "4H. Sums you up. Now, Donna, did you know anything about what was HC Clements working on? Anything top secret? Special operations? Do not enter?"

Donna shook her head. "I was just a temp. I wasn't important enough for anything like that," she said a little bitterly.

The Doctor sat down at another desk and sonicked the computer screen, watching as it came to life. "HC Clements make keys," he said as the screen changed from blank white to a layout of the HC Clements building. "And look at this. We're on the ground floor."

"So?" Donna countered with a shrug.

"So, what if the layout is isn't telling the truth?"

"What do you mean?" Donna asked.

The Doctor jumped out of the chair and started running to the other side of the room. "Just a hunch," he shouted, "but let's see if I'm right!" Just past the offices on the other side of the room was a lift. The Doctor pushed the button so the doors would open and he quickly slipped inside. Donna and I hurried after him and stood right outside the lift doors.

"On the layout it says that underneath reception, there's a basement, yes? Then how come when you look on the lift, there's a button marked _lower_ basement?" the Time Lord asked as he pointed at the button panel. "There's a whole floor which doesn't exist on the official plans. So what's down there, then?"

"So you're telling me this building's got a secret floor?"

The Doctor grinned. "No, I'm _showing_ you this building's got a secret floor."

Donna pointed at the panel. "But it needs a key."

"I don't." The Doctor pointed his sonic at the panel and the lift dinged. "Right then. Thanks, Donna, for your help, but I can handle this. See you later. Diana, with me."

Donna shook he read and marched into the lift. "No chance, Martian. You're the man who keeps saving my life. I ain't letting you out of my sight." She turned around so she was facing me and waved impatiently. "Come on, then!"

I glanced at the Doctor, who smiled hopefully. "Diana?" he asked.

"Oh, for crying out loud," Donna groaned. She reached out and grabbed my uninjured arm, then pulled me inside the lift with her.

The Doctor laughed softly and pressed the down button on the panel. "Going down."


	2. The Runaway Bride: Part 2

**Warning: Di says one curse word towards the middle of the chapter, but it's for a very good reason.**

* * *

 

The lift dinged and stopped with a sudden jolt. The doors slid open and Donna stepped out into the adjoining hallway. I glanced around at the empty stone hallway bathed with green light and immediately stepped back into the lift, bumping right into the Doctor.

"You okay?" the Doctor asked.

I shook my head. "I don't like this," I said.

Donna, meanwhile, was already eager to explore. "Where are we?" she asked. "Well, what goes on down here?"

"We'll find out, Donna," the Doctor said. He gently rested a hand on my shoulder and stepped to the side so we could see each other better. "What's wrong?"

"I really don't like this," I told him, sparing the creepy hallway a glance. "I want to wake up."

The Doctor sighed and bowed his head. "Diana-"

"Do you think Mr. Clements knows about this place?" Donna interjected as she bounded back into the lift.

The Doctor stammered for a moment, thinking. "Perhaps."

Donna nodded in agreement and began inspecting the hallway, her hands firmly placed on her hips and she turned in place to look around. "So what are looking for, then? Bodies in the basement? A suspiciously evil looking laboratory?"

She continued chattering on as she walked along the walls. I wasn't paying much attention to anything she was saying and focused instead on something that had been bothering me since Samreen patched me up hardly an hour earlier: I was hurt and I could feel it. Dreaming about the Doctor or his companions wasn't new to me and I was used to having mini adventures in my sleep. But I'd never been injured in a dream and I'd never even felt something as simple as a hug or a kiss in my dreams either.

"Diana!"

The Doctor's voice startled me and brought me out of my thoughts. I blinked and stared, wide-eyed, at the Time Lord as he looked expectantly back at me. My cheeks flushed with embarrassment as the Doctor explained that he'd been trying to get my attention three times already.

"Sorry," I muttered. "I was thinking."

"Do you want to talk about it?" the Doctor asked softly.

I shook my head. "No."

The Doctor nodded in understanding. Gesturing behind him, the Doctor smiled slightly. "I found transport-"  
"Oi!" Donna exclaimed from somewhere in the hallway.

" _Donna_ found transport," the Doctor corrected. He held a hand out and encouraged me to take it with a grin. "Come on."

The transport Donna had found happened to be four Segways all lined up against the wall. Donna eagerly hopped onto one of them and had managed to get it working in just a few seconds. She tried to put it into reverse and accidentally slammed straight into the wall, but quickly laughed it off and was spinning in circles just a few minutes later. The Doctor was able to get on a Segway of his own and control it with relative ease, which just left me. I glanced skeptically at the two remaining Segways and shook my head.

"Come on!" Donna said with a laugh.

"I'm pretty sure I'll fall and break my neck if I try to use one," I told her.

Rolling her eyes a little dramatically, Donna rolled to a stop in front of me and gestured to me with a wave. "Alright, then. Up you get."

I furrowed my brows in confusion. "What?"

"Get up here," Donna said. "Behind me."

"Oh," I realized. "Right."

With some extra help from Donna, I awkwardly stepped onto the Segway behind her. Her veil and hair were right in my face, but I didn't want to be rude so I simply tilted my head to the side. Donna, however, had noticed and quickly pulled her veil to the right so it draped over her shoulder. There was so little room on the Segway though, that Donna and I were pressed completely against one another despite the fact that she was as far forward as she could possibly go.

"Bit of a tight fit," the redhead sighed. "Bet you're not complaining, Di."

I blushed. "N-No," I mumbled. "I mean, I-I don't mind, but…"

Donna laughed again and started forward, making me instinctively wrap my arms around her waist to keep from falling off. The Doctor suddenly zoomed past us, briefly looking over this shoulder to flash us a grin. Following his example, Donna leaned forward and the Segway picked up speed. She guided the Segway in zigzags across the hallway and occasionally throwing in a twirl or two.

But the fun was over when the Doctor stopped in front of a large, metal door ahead of us. Donna slowed the Segway slightly and eventually rolled to a stop right beside the Doctor. She gently nudged me in the stomach with her hip and I quickly stepped off, then offered the redhead my hand. She accepted and winked at me as she moved to stand next to me. Then, with my face still slightly flushed, we turned towards the Doctor and the large door he was inspecting.

"Torchwood again," Donna said as she read the sign painted onto the door.

Written just above the giant wheel in the center of the door was a sign that read: Torchwood - Authorised personnel only. The Doctor ignored the sign and began turning the wheel. Just beyond the door was a tiny brick room with a single ladder that stretched hundreds of feet into the air.

The Doctor looked back at Donna and I with his finger pointing between the two of us. "Wait here. Just need to get my bearings. _Don't_ do anything," he ordered before starting up the ladder.

Donna leaned into the room. "You'd better come back," she said seriously.

The Doctor shook his head and smiled. "I couldn't get rid of you if I tried."

I poked my head into the brick room as well and looked up, watching the Doctor climb the ladder with ease and speed. I scoffed and wished that I could make it up a ladder like that. I was built a bit like Donna, except a lot thicker around the middle, and I had a bad knee that often made my life a living hell. That made most stairs and ladders a no-go for me.

"So," Donna started, leaning back against the open door and crossing her arms over her chest, "how're things with you and Clara?"

"What?"

Donna's smile dropped. "Oh no. Did you two call it off?" she asked.

Confused, I shook my head. "No," I said slowly.

"Oh, good," she sighed in relief. "From what you've told me about her, you two seem like the perfect couple."

 _Couple?_ I repeated mentally. _Me and Clara? Clara Oswald?_ I didn't want Donna to know that I had no idea what she was talking about, so I smiled and leaned casually against the wall. "Yeah. We- we are," I said as convincingly as I could manage.

"How long's it been now? Seven or eight months, yeah?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I think so."

Donna smiled again, obviously pleased. "Granddad will be so glad. When he and I weren't out of our minds worrying about you, we were wondering how you and Clara were doing. She's still teaching, right?"

"Yeah," I answered. "Still teaching."

"She's got the temperament for it. _I_ certainly don't. Being surrounded by snot nosed, bratty teenagers all day?" Donna scoffed. "Hell no."

"Yeah, I couldn't do it either," I added.

Glancing up towards the top of the ladder, Donna seemed to be considering something. She glanced back at me then and pouted. "How d'you know him, then?" she asked, pointing to the Doctor with her thumb.

I stammered for a few seconds, trying to think of an excuse Donna might actually buy. I looked up at the Doctor as he continued up the ladder and exhaled heavily. "He's… a friend. Of Clara's," I finally said.

"That's _him?_ " Donna exclaimed. "What, that skinny rat is this friend of Clara's that you've told me all about? _Him?_ "

I nodded. "Yep," I squeaked. "That's him."

 _I'm, like, 500 percent sure that I'm going to regret this conversation at some point,_ I thought. _Well if anyone knows how to get themselves into a massive amount of trouble by lying, it's me._

"How long have you even known him?" Donna questioned.

I shrugged and looked back up at the Doctor, wishing he would come back already and help me out of explaining a mess that I didn't know anything about. "I don't know," I said. "Really."

Donna raised her eyebrows. "Been that long?"

"Yeah," I said slowly, regretting my answer more and more with each passing second.

"Alright, you two!" the Doctor called down from the top of the ladder. I could just make out a hatch of some kind above his head. "I'm coming back down!"

A few short minutes later, the Doctor reached the bottom of the ladder and jumped down. "Thames flood barrier right on top of us," he explained. "Torchwood snuck in and built this place underneath."

"We're underneath the Thames?" I said.

"What, there's like a secret base hidden underneath a major London landmark?" Donna asked, directly after me.

The Doctor smirked as he stepped past us towards the Segways. "Oh, I know. Unheard of," he said. "Now come on. This is Torchwood. There's bound to be a billion other things for us to discover."

* * *

A short Segway ride down the hallway was another door, except this one was a normal glass and plastic one with the Torchwood logo painted on. Underneath the Torchwood symbol was written the word "Laboratory". The Doctor skidded to a halt in front of the door and unlocked it with his sonic. He pushed it open and Donna and I hurried in after him.

The lab was a moderately sized room with dozens of large, see-through devices with countless tubes and hoses attached to them. Each device was full of a very light blue - almost transparent - liquid that was bubbling almost like it was boiling.

The Doctor bolted across the room, grinning like an excited child. "Oh, look at this," he said as he slipped his glasses on. "Stunning!"

Donna and I wandered aimlessly around the lab, splitting our attention between the Doctor and the strange devices.

"What does it do?" Donna asked.

The Doctor bounced from one device to the next. "Particle extrusion. Hold on…" He tapped his knuckle against one of the tubes and laughed. "Brilliant. They've been manufacturing Huon particles. Course, my people got rid of Huons. They unravel the atomic structure."

"Your people?" Donna repeated.

The Doctor hummed. "Yep, my people. But this lot, here, they're rebuilding them. They've been using the river. Extruding them through a flat hydrogen base so they've got the end result-" he moved to a small metal table beside one device and picked something up "-Huon particles in liquid form."

I moved to stand beside Donna and gazed curiously at the object in the Doctor's hand. It was a container of the bubbling liquid in the other devices. "And that's what's inside me?" Donna asked. The Doctor opened the container and the liquid suddenly began to glow gold. Donna's body, in what I assumed was a reaction, began glowing gold as well. "Oh my God!"

The Doctor closed the container and smiled, then slipped it into his pocket. "Genius. Because the particles are inert, they need something living to catalyze inside and that's you. Saturate the body and then-. _Ha!_ " He jumped backwards with a shout, making Donna and I start. "The wedding! Yes, you're getting married, that's it! Best day of your life, walking down the aisle. Oh, your body's a _battleground!_ There's a chemical war inside! Adrenaline, acetylcholine. _Wham!_ , go the endorphins. Oh, you're cooking! You're like a walking oven. A pressure cooker, a microwave, all churning away. The particles reach boiling point. Shazam-!"

Donna, who had been staring wide-eyed and terrified at the Time Lord, slapped im hard across the face.

The Doctor groaned and tenderly pressed a hand to his cheek. "What did I do this time?" he asked, his voice squeaking a little.

"Are you enjoying this?" Donna snapped. The Doctor lowered his gaze and fell silent. "Right, just tell me, Doctor. These particles, are they dangerous? Am I safe?"

"Yes," he said with a nod.

Donna fixed the Time Lord with a stern look. "Doctor, if your lot got rid of Huon particles, why did they do that?"

"Because they were deadly," he admitted.

"Oh my God," Donna gasped.

I gently grasped her shoulder. "Hey, it's okay," I said quickly. "You'll be okay."

"I'll sort it out, Donna. Whatever's been done to you, I'll reverse it," the Doctor said. "I am not about to lose someone else."

Suddenly, a woman's voice echoed through the lab. "Oh, she is long since lost!" The wall we were standing in front of began to slide up into the ceiling, revealing inch by inch another, larger room beyond it. "I have waited so long, hibernating at the edge of the universe until the secret heart was uncovered and called out to waken!"

The new room was easily three times the size of the lab, with stairwells and walkways along each wall. In the center of the room was a large hole that was easily twenty feet across, if not more, and I could even from where we stood that it was very deep. Above us on each wall was a line of figures in black robes and gold masks - the same gold masks that the robot Santas had worn - and each figure was holding a gun that was pointed directly at us.

I froze for a second before hiding behind Donna, who reached for my hand. I grabbed hers tightly and stared in fear at the robots, praying to anyone who would listen that we wouldn't get shot.

The Doctor strode casually over to the hole, his hands in his trouser pockets. "Someone's been digging," he said as he looked over the edge. "Oh, very Torchwood. Drilled by laser. How far down does it go?"

The same bodiless woman spoke again. "Down and down, all the way to the center of the Earth!"

The Doctor made a face. "Really? Seriously? What for?"

Donna dropped my hand and stepped towards the Doctor. "Dinosaurs," she whispered to him.

"What?"

I grabbed Donna's hand again and stood half behind her. "Dinosaurs?" she tried again, more hesitant with her suggestion the second time.

The Doctor shook his head. "What are you on about, dinosaurs?"

"That film, Under the Earth, with dinosaurs," she said. "Trying to help."

The Doctor shook his head again and grimaced. "That's not helping."

"Such a sweet couple!" the bodiless woman said in an incredibly patronizing tone.

"We are _not_ a couple," the Doctor corrected, stepping back to stand in front of Donna and I. "But, I digress. Only a madman talks to thin air and trust me, you don't want to make me mad. Where are you?"

"High in the sky! Floating so high on Christmas night."

The Doctor rolled his eyes as he looked around the room. "I didn't come all this way to talk on the intercom. Come on, let's have a look at you!"

"Who are you with such command?" the woman demanded.

"I'm the Doctor."

"Prepare your best medicines, doctor man, for you will be sick at heart!"

On the opposite side of the room where a raised platform stood, a large creature began to appear. It was an enormous spider-like creature with a human torso and head, its entire body a dark reddish orange. I recoiled in fear, clutching Donna's hand with every ounce of strength in my body.

The Doctor gaped at the spider creature. "Racnoss? But that's impossible. You're one of the _Racnoss?_ "

"Empress of the Racnoss!" the woman exclaimed proudly.

"If you're the Empress, where's the rest of the Racnoss?" The Doctor smiled then. "Or, are you the only one?"

The Empress, who had great stingers for arms, nodded. "Such a sharp mind!"

"That's it, the last of your kind," the Doctor said. He sounded proud of himself for guessing, almost pleased. Turning to Donna and I, he began to explain. "The Racnoss come from the Dark Times, billions of years ago. _Billions_. They were carnivores, omnivores. They devoured whole planets."

"Racnoss are born starving!" the Empress snapped, her pincer arms twitching slightly. "Is that our fault?"

I unconsciously shook my head. Of course it wasn't their fault. The Racnoss were born - created - a certain way and there was no way to change that. That was something I could understand easily enough. But then again, they also killed and ate innocent people.

Donna obviously shared my thoughts. "They eat people?" she asked incredulously.

The Doctor seemed distracted by something else because he suddenly said, "HC Clements, did he wear those- those, er, black and white shoes?"

Donna smiled and nodded. "He did. We used to laugh. We used to call him the fat cat in spats." The Doctor sighed sadly and pointed at the ceiling, just above the Empress, where a large web had been spun. Sticking out of the bottom of the web were two human legs clad in black trousers and the victim's feet had on a pair of black and white shoes. Donna gasped and I suddenly felt like vomiting. "Oh my God!"

The Empress grinned. "Mmm," she hummed. "My Christmas dinner!"

"You shouldn't even exist," the Doctor said as he stepped forward again, his hands still casually stuffed into his trouser pockets. "Way back in history, the fledgling empires went to war against the Racnoss they were wiped out."

"Except for me!"

Something moved on a walkway just behind the Empress, catching my eye. I glanced at the walkway and felt my eyes widen when I spotted Lance creeping out of a small doorway. Donna had spotted him too because she grasped my hand just a little tighter and smiled. Lance saw us staring at him and pressed his finger to his lips, gesturing for us to be quiet.

I readjusted my glasses. "Is that…?"

Donna nodded, whispering in my ear, "It's Lance."

"How did he get here?" I asked, half to myself and half to Donna.

But Donna was ignoring me. She dropped my hand and stepped forward so she was standing beside the Doctor, leaving me behind and feeling very exposed. "But that's what I've got inside me, that Huon energy thing," she said to the Empress. The Empress started to glance away, but Donna shouted. " _Oi!_ Look at me, lady, I'm talking! Where do I fit in? How comes I get all stacked up with these Huon particles? Look at me, you! Look me in the eye and tell me!"

The Empress smiled. "The bride is so feisty," she laughed.

"Yes I am!" Donna shouted.

I glanced at Lance again and saw him pick up a red fire axe from somewhere on the walkway, then slowly approach the Empress from behind. He looked like he was going to chop her right in the skull, but I knew he wouldn't. There was nothing I could do to stop him, but I wanted to try and spare Donna the pain.

"Donna," I said as I reached for her arm, "wait."

She ignored me again and pulled her arm out of my reach, advancing on the Empress with another step. "And I don't know what you are, you big _thing_ , but a spider's just a spider and an axe is an axe!"

"Donna!" I tried again.

She turned her head in Lance's direction and shouted, "Now, do it!"

Lance faked swinging the axe just as the Empress whirled around to face him. He froze, looking terrified, but then dropped the act a moment later. He lowered the axe and began laughing. "That was a good one," he snickered, the Empress laughing with him. "Your face!"

"Lance is funny," the Empress said.

Donna stared incredulously at her almost husband. "What?"

The Doctor glanced at me and sighed. "I'm sorry," he said as he rested a hand on her forearm.

"Sorry for what?" Donna asked. "Lance, don't be so stupid! Get her!"

Lance dropped the axe. "God, she's thick," he scowled. "Months I've had to put up with her. _Months_. A woman who can't even point to Germany on a map."

Donna shook her head. "I-I don't understand."

The Doctor stepped in front of her so he was blocking her view of Lance and the Empress. "How did you meet him?" he asked.

"In the office."

The Doctor gazed sadly at the redhead. "He made you coffee."

Donna's voice broke. "What?"

"Every day," Lance said, "I made you coffee."

"You had to be dosed with liquid particles over six months," the Doctor explained.

Donna's hands began to tremble. "He was poisoning me," she breathed.

"It was all there in the job title. The Head of Human Resources."

Lance smirked. "This time, it's personnel," he corrected.

Donna looked past the Doctor at Lance. "But we were getting married," she said, trying to understand his betrayal.

"Well, I couldn't risk you running off. I had to say yes," Lance told her. "And then I was stuck with a woman who thinks the height of excitement is a new flavor Pringle." Donna's shoulders fell and she looked like she was going to be sick. "Oh, I had to sit there and listen to all that yap yap yap. Oh, Brad and Angelina! Is Posh pregnant? X Factor, Atkins Diet, Feng Shui, split ends, text me, text me, text me. Dear God, the never ending fountain of _fat_ , stupid trivia! I deserve a medal."

My hands clenched into fists as Lance insulted his fiancé, an irritated expression on his face the entire time.

"Oh, is that what she's offered you?" the Doctor asked. "The Empress of the Racnoss? What are you, her consort?"

"It's better than a night with her," Lance spat in disgust.

"But I love you," Donna said in a trembling voice.

Lance smiled. "That's what made it easy."

"You fucking bastard," I snarled. The Doctor turned and stared at me in shock, while Lance and the Empress looked at me with curiosity. "You used her."

"Yeah. So?"

"How dare you. How _dare_ you! You used her! You let her fall in love with you and then you just spat right in her face!"

"I did what I had to," Lance said.

"She's not a chore," I countered. "She's a human being and you used her like she was nothing! Don't you even care that she loved you? She gave you everything, she gave you her life, and you just betray her?"

"Pretending to love a fat, ugly cow like her is the most difficult thing I've had to do in my entire life!"

I bounded forward so I was at the edge of the hole in the ground, and the Doctor quickly grabbed me by the elbow to keep me from accidentally falling in. "Diana," he whispered, "calm down."

"You know nothing!" I shouted. "Donna Noble is the bravest, kindest, most beautiful, most important woman in the entire universe and she deserves better than a disgusting pig like you!"

"The girl is feisty, too," the Empress noted with a smile.

I strained against the Doctor's hold my arm, wanting nothing more than to pummel Lance and the Empress with my own bare hands. "Screw you, bitch. You did this to her."

"Diana," the Doctor said firmly. He rested his other hand on my shoulder. "Not now."

"You know, Doctor," Lance began, "it's like you said. The big picture. What's the point of it all if the human race is nothing? That's what the Empress can give me. The chance to go out there. To see it. The size of it all. I think you understand that, don't you, Doctor?"

"Who is this little physician?" the Empress asked.

Lance gestured to Donna with a nod of his head. "She said Martian."

"Go to her," the Doctor whispered in my ear. Then he pulled his hands back and crossed them over his chest. "Oh, I'm sort of homeless."

As he approached the gaping hole again, I followed his instructions and returned to Donna's side. She was staring at her husband to be, tears in her blue eyes and her face frozen in a state of shock. I reached for her hand and she grasped it immediately, but she didn't look at me. I didn't know what to do or if I should say anything, so I simply stood beside her and held her hand in mine.

The Doctor peeked into the hole. "But the point is, what's down here?" he asked. "The Racnoss are extinct. What's going to help you four thousand miles down? That's just the molten core of the Earth, isn't it?"

The Empress laughed. "I think so, too!"

"Well, tough!" Lance shouted. "All we need is Donna."

To the robots lined along the walls, the Empress ordered, "Kill this chattering little doctor man! But not the girl! I want to hear her screams as I eat her alive."

"No!" Donna exclaimed. She pushed me behind her and spread her arms wide so one was extended in front of me and the other was in front of the Doctor. "Don't you hurt them!"

The Doctor shook his head and pushed her arm down. "No, no, Donna. It's all right," he told her.

She moved to stand in front of the Doctor. "No, I won't let them!"

"At arms!" the Empress shouted.

The robots all cocked their guns and aimed at the Doctor. The Doctor began backing up slowly, his arms held in front of him. "Ah," he squeaked, "now. Er, except-"

"Take aim!"

The Doctor exhaled heavily as he glanced around the room, trying to find a way out. "Well, I-I just want to point out the obvious."

"They won't hit the bride. Or your friend. They're such very good shots!" the Empress taunted.

The Doctor stammered for several long seconds. "Just- Just- Just- Just- Just hold on. Hold on just a tick! Just a tiny little- just a little… tick. If you think about it, the particles activated in Donna and drew her inside my spaceship," he said quickly as he pulled the container of Huon particles out of his coat pocket. He opened it and smiled. "So reverse it, and the spaceship comes to her."

The Empress raised one slim, pincer arm and shouted, "Fire!"

Donna and the Huon particles were glowing gold as a familiar sounded echoed in the room. The TARDIS materialized like smoke around the three of us just as the robots began firing at us. A few stray bullets shot into the TARDIS right above our heads before she could finish properly materializing, but none of us were harmed.

The Doctor took off and began jumping around the console. "Off we go!" He fiddled with several of the controls and the ship dematerialized with a groan. "Oh, do you know what I said before about time machines? Well, I lied. And now we're going to use it. We need to find out what the Empress of the Racnoss is digging up. If something's buried at the planet's core, it must've been there since the beginning."

Donna pulled away from me and wandered over to the jump seat. She sat down and began crying softly while the Doctor continued rambling needlessly. I rushed to her side and immediately pulled her into a firm hug. Her arms wrapped around my torso as she cried, her entire body shaking.

"I'm sorry," I said as I kissed the top of her head. "I'm sorry, Donna, I'm so sorry." She let out a sob and tightened her grip around me. "Hey, it's okay. It's gonna be okay. I promise. Forget him. Just forget about him. He's stupid. And he's worthless and terrible and he didn't deserve you."

I happened to glance at the console while comforting Donna and caught the Doctor's gaze. His eyes were filled with sadness and regret. He looked down and worked with a few buttons and dials on the console. The TARDIS wheezed again and boomed to signal that she had landed.

I kissed Donna's forehead again and sighed, resting my chin on the crown of her head. "You're beautiful. And you're clever and funny and caring and kind and so, so amazing. And I love you. And I would gladly marry you," I said, hoping to brighten her mood even just a little.

Donna hiccuped and nodded against my chest. She sniffled and then moved her head back so she was looking up at me. "I'm sure. You'd marry just about any woman," she laughed.

"Nah, just the special ones," I replied. "And the pretty ones."

"Of course."

I laughed. "Of course."

The Doctor stepped out from behind the console and glanced hesitantly at Donna. "We've arrived," he said. "Want to see?"

Donna quickly hid her face so she could wipe away her tears. When I nodded at her, she looked back at the Doctor. "I suppose," she sighed.

The Doctor spared a quick look at his scanner and wrinkled his nose. "Oh, that scanner's a bit small. Maybe your way's best." He started for the doors with a little hop in his step. Then he stopped and leaned against the railing so he could flash Donna an encouraging smile. "Come on. No human's ever seen this. You'll be the first."

Donna stood and walked slowly down the ramp with me just behind her. "All I want to see is my bed," she mumbled.

The Doctor reached for the doors and slowly pulled them open. "Donna Noble, Diana Scott, welcome to the creation of the Earth." Outside the TARDIS were enormous clouds of multicolored gas, countless lumps of rock floating around us, and a star far off to our left. The Doctor stepped back to let me stand next to Donna and then he moved to stand behind me. "We've gone back 4.6 billion years. There's no solar system, not yet. Only dust and rocks and gas. That's the Sun over there," he said as he pointed over our heads at the star. "Brand new. Just beginning to burn."

"Where's the Earth?" Donna asked.

"All around us in the dust," the Time Lord answered.

I leaned out a little more so my head was centimeters away from sticking through the doorway. I tilted my head in a dozen different directions, trying to see everything and memorize every detail. I was so stunned that I could hardly breathe, let alone speak. The tiniest bits of rock gliding past us were easily the size of a house and they floated so effortlessly, like fish in the ocean.

Donna nodded. "Puts the wedding in perspective," she said. "Lance was right. We're just… tiny."

"No, but that's what you do!" the Doctor replied. "The human race makes sense out of chaos. Marking it out with weddings and Christmas and calendars. This whole process is beautiful, but only if it's being observed."

"So I came out of all this?"

"Isn't that brilliant?"

A piece of rock much larger than most of the others drifted by and Donna smiled. "I think that's the Isle of Wight," she joked, making all three of us laugh.

The Doctor gestured vaguely to the rocks and gas. "Eventually, gravity takes hold," he explained. "Say, one big rock, heavier than the others, starts to pull other rocks towards it. All the dust and gas and elements get pulled in. Everything, piling in until you get-"

"The Earth," Donna finished for him.

He nodded and looked out over my shoulder. "But the question is, what was that first rock?"

Piercing through the multicolored gas, a star shaped ship with seven points appeared and flew slowly into the mass of floating rock. Donna pointed and said, "Look," drawing the Doctor's attention.

He gasped. "The Racnoss." He bolted up the ramp and skidded to a halt in front of the console. "Hold on! The Racnoss are hiding from the war. What's it doing?" he asked.

Donna and I watched as the giant ship began to glow and the debris and rocks floating around it began to gravitate towards it. "Exactly what you said," Donna said.

The Doctor ran back to us and stood on his toes, peering over my head. "Oh, they didn't just bury something at the center of the Earth. They _became_ the center of the Earth. The first rock!"

An explosion sounded inside the TARDIS and the ship suddenly jolted, throwing us all back a few paces. The doors slammed shut and the Doctor started for the console again.

"What was that?" Donna shouted over the commotion.

"Trouble!"

The TARDIS jolted again and Donna and I were thrown against the railings, while the Doctor stumbled away from the console. He quickly regained his balance and scrambled back to the console, holding tightly to it with one hand while he tried to fiddle with the console with his other hand.

"What the hell's it doing?" Donna demanded.

Using the railing as support, I shuffled over to the jump seat and braced myself against it. Donna stood on the other side of the console, holding on for dear life as the Doctor continued messing about with the controls. The ship continued to jolt and throw us around, wheezing and groaning the entire time.

"Remember that little trick of mine, particles pulling particles?" the Doctor told Donna. "Well, it works in reverse. They're pulling us back!"

Another jolt. "Well, can't you stop it? Hasn't it got a handbrake? Can't you reverse or warp or beam or something?"

The Doctor glared at her. "Backseat driver- Oh! Wait a minute! The extrapolator!" He jumped around the console and grabbed something, then fell back into the jump seat next to me. It took me a second, but I recognized the object as the surfboard that the Slitheen mayor of Cardiff had planned to use to escape an exploding Earth. "It can't stop us, but it should give us a good bump!" The Doctor sonicked the device and then braced himself with his feet pressed against the console. "Now!"

The TARDIS materialized for a moment, then halted and began to materialize again. The Doctor dropped the extrapolator onto the metal grating and jumped to his feet. He grabbed my hand as the ship landed and dragged me after him to the doors. I tripped over my slippers and one of them accidentally slipped off, but the Doctor refused to let me go.

He opened the doors with his free hand and stepped outside, looking around to get his bearings. "We're about two hundred yards to the right," he told Donna and I. "Come on!"

The Doctor finally dropped my hand and took off running down the hallway as Donna went sprinting past me. Recognizing it as the hallway that led to the strangely placed ladder and the lab, I took my other slipper off and tossed it into the TARDIS, then took off after the pair.

Just a few yards down the hallway, the Doctor had stopped at the door where we had discovered the ladder. He had pulled out a stethoscope from somewhere in his coat and was placing the buds in his ears.

"But what do we do?" Donna asked as she stopped beside him

I slowed to a walk and strode over to them in my own time, not wanting to run anymore than absolutely necessary. "I don't know," the Doctor said as he pressed the stethoscope against the door. "I make it up as I go along. But trust me, I've got a history."

Donna shook her head. "But I still don't understand. I'm full of particles, but what for?"

"There's a Racnoss web at the center of the Earth, but my people unravelled their power source. The Huon particles ceased to exist but the Racnoss were stuck."

A robot suddenly appeared from the dark green shadows and silenced Donna with one hand over her mouth. With its free hand, it punched me in the temple and I fell over completely unconscious.

* * *

"Come on, Diana. Wake up. Wake up."

I blinked several times, confused and irritated when I realized that someone was incessantly tapping the side of my face. "Stmph," I grumbled, blindly smacking the hand away from my face.

"There you are." I blinked again and saw the Doctor leaning over me. "Come on. Up you get." He got to his feet and pulled me up with him. I noticed that he was wearing a black robe over his normal outfit and stared at it in confusion. "I'll explain later. We've got to save Donna."

I shook my head. "What?"

"Listen to me. Do you understand?" The Doctor put a hand on either side of my head. "Listen. I want you to go back to the lab. Stay by the door and wait for me to deactivate the robots, then go in and get Donna to higher ground. Can you do that?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

"Repeat it back to me so I know you remember."

"Go to the lab, wait for you to deactivate the robots, then get Donna to higher ground."

"Good." The Doctor leaned forward and gently kissed my forehead, making me wince. "Sorry. I'll patch you up when this is over, I promise. Now go."

He opened the door and stepped into the small, brick room and started up the giant ladder. I watched for a minute, then realized that I needed to be somewhere else. Rubbing my eyes under my glasses, I shook my head to clear my thoughts and started down the hallway in the direction of the TARDIS. A short one minute walk past the ship led me to the lab doors and I stopped in front of them, looking through the glass to try and spot Donna.

It was difficult to see past the Huon devices, but I could see the Empress at the far end of the room, and both Donna and Lance tied up in her web on the ceiling. Standing in the same place as before on the walkways, I saw the robots standing guard with guns strapped across their torsos. I couldn't hear anything, so I very gently pushed against the door. It opened an inch without a squeak and I pushed it again so I could stick my head in.

"Activate the particles!" the Empress ordered. "Purge every last one!" Donna and Lance both began to glow gold, although I wasn't entirely sure was Lance was glowing at all. "And release!"

All the glowing gold energy in Donna's body suddenly formed into a cloud and dropped straight into the hole in the ground.

"The secret heart unlocks, and they will waken from their Sleep of Ages!" the Empress declared.

"Who will?"I heard Donna ask. "What's down there?"

"How thick are you?" Lance snapped.

The Empress raised her pincer arms with a cry. "My children! The long lost Racnoss, now reborn to feast on flesh and the web star shall come to me!" She grinned and looked up at the web. "My babies will be hungry. They need sustenance. Perish the web!"

"No," I whispered. "Donna!"

"Use her!" Lance begged. "Not me! Use her!"

The Empress looked at him. "Oh, my funny little Lance! But you are quite impolite to your lady friend. The Empress does not approve," she said. Then she raised her arms again and snipped the webbing around Lance, making him plummet into the hole that led directly into the Earth's core.

"Lance!" Donna screamed.

The Empress laughed and looked down the hole at her children. "Harvest the humans! Reduce them to meat! My children are climbing towards me and none shall stop them." She turned suddenly and looked to her right at one of the larger stairwells. "So you might as well unmask, my clever little doctor man."

I noticed then a robed figure standing on one side of the stairwell. The robe was quickly pulled off to reveal the Doctor, who had also pulled on a robot mask. _Where did he get that?_ I wondered. _And how did he get over there?_

"Oh, well. Nice try," the Time Lord sighed. "I've got you, Donna!"

He aimed his sonic at the webbing around Donna and she cried out in panic. "I'm going to fall!" she shouted.

The Doctor spread his arms. "You're going to swing! I've got you!"

Letting out a scream, Donna grabbed onto a piece of webbing as it detached from the ceiling on one end and she went swinging across the gaping hole in the floor. She flew right past the Empress and slammed straight into the wall with a shout, then fell to the floor.

The Doctor dropped his arms, looking a little embarrassed. "Oh. Sorry," he mumbled.

I couldn't see Donna because of the Huon devices blocking my view, but I could hear her just fine. "Thanks for nothing," she grumbled.

"The doctor man amuses me," the Empress laughed.

That grabbed the Doctor's attention and his gaze locked onto the Racnoss. "Empress of the Racnoss, I give you one last chance," he said seriously. "I can find you a planet. I can find you and your children a place in the universe to co-exist. Take that offer and end this now."

The Empress smiled. "These men are so funny."

"What's your answer?"

"Oh, I'm afraid I have to decline," the Empress replied.

The Doctor nodded. "Then what happens next is your own doing."

"I'll show you what happens next!" she countered. Looking to her robots, she raised one arm. "At arms! Take aim! And-"

"Relax," the Doctor interjected.

The robots all slumped over, their guns falling out of their hands to swing in front of their chests. It took me a few seconds, but I realized that it was safe for me to enter the lab and get Donna to safety. With my bare feet slapping on the floor, I pushed past the doors and ran out into the adjoining room. Everyone turned to watch me and I slowed to a walk, suddenly feeling very shy and awkward.

"Donna, go with her," the Doctor said.

"What did you do?" the redhead questioned.

He smiled. "Guess what I've got, Donna?" The Time Lord pulled a remote control out of his coat and winked. "Pockets."

Donna scoffed. "How did that fit in there?"

"They're bigger on the inside."

Donna looked back at me and shook her head. "Of course they are," she said under her breath.

I grabbed her hand and started for the stairwell. "Come on," I urged. "The Doctor said to go to higher ground."

"Roboforms are not necessary!" the Empress said as she glared at the Doctor. "My children may feast on Martian flesh!"

The Doctor smiled, almost cruelly, and shook his head. "Oh, but I'm not from Mars," he told her as Donna and I started up the stairs.

The Empress pulled a face that looked like she had raised an eyebrow, despite the fact that she didn't have any. "Then where?"

"My home planet is far away and long since gone. But its name lives on: Gallifrey."

The Empress screeched in horror and raised up on her hind legs. "They murdered the Racnoss!" she snarled.

"I warned you," the Doctor said. "You did this."

He reached into another pocket and pulled his hand back out to reveal several of the ornaments the robot Santas had used at Donna's reception earlier that day. Then I remembered that they exploded upon impact and I froze in place just half a flight of stairs below the Doctor. Donna moved so she was standing next to me and she looked between me and the Time Lord.

"Diana? What is it?" she asked.

I nodded at the ornaments the Doctor was holding. "That," I said.

"No!" the Empress cried. "No! Don't! _No!_ "

The Doctor tossed the ornaments into the air and then held the remote in front of him, his hands manipulating the two joysticks beneath his thumbs. Some of the ornaments whizzed out of sight and a few explosions followed their disappearance. The rest hovered in mid air around the Empress while she flailed and cried for the Doctor to stop. Hardly a minute later, water came flooding into the room and waves began pouring into the hole where the Empress's children were still trapped.

"No! No! My children!" the Empress screamed as her children began to scream as well. "No! My children! My children!"

I watched as the Empress writhed and wailed for her dying children, their screams almost too much to bare. Fires began to erupt throughout the lab despite the water that was literally everywhere. Stunned and terrified, I turned my gaze to the Doctor to find him staring at the carnage below with a stony expression.

"Doctor!" Donna yelled over the din. "You can stop now!"

The Empress cried out again, mourning over her children, and the Doctor remained unmoved. I looked at him again and finally put a hand over his wrist, pushing his arm down. "Doctor, please," I said. "Stop."

He looked right into my eyes and something in him changed. He snapped out of whatever trance he was in and dropped the remote. "Come on, you two. Time we got out," he said as he guided us up the rest of the stairwell.

It was difficult since all three of us were completely soaked, the stairs were dripping wet, and I was completely barefoot, but we managed to make it to the top of the stairs within a few minutes. The stairwell connected to a walkway that went straight through the wall, then opened up into a brick shaft with a single ladder on one wall. It was the same room where the Doctor had gone into earlier. The walkway ended just to the side of the ladder, which stopped only a foot or two higher where it met a hatch.

The Doctor pulled Donna and I close and then pulled out his sonic. "Right, you two. Hang on." With a press of a button, the familiar wheeze of the TARDIS materializing sounded and the ship began to appear around us. Within a few seconds, we were safe inside the ship and the Doctor was already at the console and preparing to send the old girl back into flight.

Once the TARDIS had set off to the destination the Doctor had plotted for her, a stack of towels materialized on the jump seat. The Doctor handed one to Donna and I, then took one for himself and we began drying ourselves off as best we could. Donna's veil had been so badly damaged by the water that it was irreparable, so she took it off and draped it over the railing. I made sure to dry my feet off and then went in search of my slippers since my toes were absolutely freezing.

When we were all dried off and warm, the Doctor went back to the console and stood in front of the scanner. "So, where exactly do you live, Donna?" he asked.

* * *

The ship landed with a minor jolt right across the street from Donna's house. Donna and I stepped out of the TARDIS first, then the Doctor followed. He patted the door and leaned back against it with a smile, his hands back in his trouser pockets. "There we go," he said. "Told you she'd be all right. She can survive anything."

"More than I've done," Donna sighed.

The Doctor quickly pulled out his sonic and scanned her. "No," he said as he checked the readings, "all the Huon particles have gone. No damage, you're fine."

Donna smiled a little sadly. "Yeah, but apart from that. I missed my wedding, lost my job, and became a widow on the same day. Sort of."

"I couldn't save him," the Doctor told her. "I'm sorry."

"He deserved it." The Doctor raised his eyebrows at her and Donna shook her head a moment later. "No, he didn't." She looked over her shoulder at her house and sighed again. "I'd better get inside. They'll be worried."

"Best Christmas present they could have," the Doctor said as he nodded at Donna's parents embracing behind a window. "Oh, no. I forgot you hate Christmas."

Donna nodded. "Yes, I do," she answered with a smile.

Opening the door, the Doctor pointed his sonic at the console and grinned. "Even if it snows?" he wondered. Something inside the TARDIS beeped and her outside turned yellow before letting out a blast of energy that shot into the sky. It began snowing a moment later.

The Doctor laughed as I held my arms out and tilted my head back, watching the snow fall around me. Donna smiled and reached into the air as a tiny snowflake flew by her hand. "I can't believe you did that!" she gasped.

The Doctor just shrugged. "Oh, basic atmospheric excitation."

Donna shook her head in disbelief. "Merry Christmas," she said.

"And you." Leaning back against the TARDIS, the Doctor smiled and crossed his arms. "So, what will you do with yourself now?"

"Not getting married, for starters. And I'm not going to temp anymore." Donna shrugged a little and chewed thoughtfully on her lower lip. "I don't know. Travel, maybe. See a bit more of planet Earth. Walk in the dust. Just go out there and do something."

"Well." The Doctor smiled. "You could always-…"

"What?"

"Come with me."

Donna looked surprised for a moment before she shook her head. "No."

The Doctor looked away in embarrassment and nodded. "Okay."

"I can't."

"No, that's fine," he said a little too quickly.

"No, but really," she tried to explain. "Everything we did today. Do you live your life like that?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Not all the time."

Donna smiled and fixed the Time Lord with a knowing look. "I think you do. And I couldn't."

"But you've seen it out there. It's beautiful!"

"And it's terrible," the redhead added. "That place was flooding and burning and they were dying, and you were stood there like- I don't know, a stranger. And then you made it snow! I mean, you scare me to death."

The Doctor looked down again. "Right," he mumbled.

"Tell you what I will do, though," Donna began. "Christmas dinner." The Doctor grimaced and she laughed. "Oh, come on."

"No, I don't do that sort of thing," he whined.

"You did it last year. You said so. And you might as well, because Mum always cooks enough for twenty."

The Doctor glanced at me and thought for a moment. His eyes looked sad for a moment, but then he looked back at Donna and smiled. "Oh, all right then. But you two go first. Better warn them," he said as he started to step inside his ship. "And don't say I'm a Martian. I just have to park her properly. She might drift off to the Middle Ages. I'll see you in a minute."

I knew he was going to leave and for a moment, I almost expected to wake up from whatever dream or hallucination I had been in for the last few hours. The TARDIS whirred and began to dematerialize, snow swirling around her. Donna realized what the Time Lord was doing and planted her feet firmly on the ground. "Doctor!" she shouted. " _Doctor!_ "

The TARDIS rematerialized and the door opened a moment later. "Blimey, you can shout!" the Doctor said as he stuck his head out.

Donna smiled. "Am I ever going to see you again?" she wondered.

"If I'm lucky."

"Just promise me one thing. Find someone."

The Doctor looked to me again and his face turned sad again. "I already have," he said.

"Who?"

Silence hung in the air for an eternity. Then the Doctor smiled. "Diana?" Donna turned to look at me. "Do you want to come with me?"

My heart stopped. I blinked once, then twice, and then I remembered to breathe. "Me?" I managed to squeak.

He nodded. "Yes. I could take you anywhere. Ancient Egypt. You could meet Cleopatra. Or Nefertiti. Or Hatshepsut." The Doctor smiled and stepped out of the TARDIS again, his eyes hopeful and happy. "Barcelona? The planet, mind you, not the city."

I glanced past him at the TARDIS and the console room that was so much bigger than her four wooden doors let on. _I could see the stars,_ I thought. _Travel in space. Travel in time!_ I forgot the suspicion that perhaps this wasn't a dream and instead thought of all the amazing things I could see. I forgot how scared I had been of the Empress and even of the Doctor. _I've always wanted to… I could meet Martha. And Jack, and Amy and Rory and River. Clara…_

"Yes." I nodded eagerly, smiling so much that I was sure my face would split. "Yes."

The Doctor smiled - a true, proper smile - and opened the doors for me. I started for him, then paused and glanced at Donna. She was smiling too, although she seemed to have turned sad like the Doctor had been minutes ago.

"Oh, go on," she said. "Go travel the stars."

I turned back to the TARDIS and the Time Lord standing in her doorway. With a laugh, I jumped inside and hurried up the ramp. The Doctor walked over to the console and stood in front of the scanner with his hands poised above the keyboard. "So," he said, "where do you want to go?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope to have the next chapter up within the week, but that does depend upon my work schedule. But until then, I'd love to know your thoughts. Please leave a review and let me know how you liked this chapter!


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